Guest Opinion: Swank closure just one symptom of a big problem

No one can fault a business for wanting to make a profit, but when it becomes a game to get the biggest numbers at the expense of the people who make those numbers happen in the first place, we can say that it is more than a simple fault.

When I was a kid, I thought that my dad was a great explorer. He’d go away for weeks at a time and come home with the most wonderful things from what I believed were far-flung places like Lake George, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Slidell, La.

Now, of course, I know my dad wasn’t an explorer.

He was a truck driver for Swank Inc.

For decades, he had the privilege of getting paid to drive coast to coast. He was with the company for 37 years, and his co-workers were more like extended family members. I’ve known most of them all my life.

And those connections are all thanks to Swank.

In fact, I am the only person in my family who never worked there. All of my relatives worked in that warehouse at one time or another.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Taunton and our surrounding communities who can say the same. For generations, Swank provided a good livelihood for local people, especially members of our Portuguese community. At a time when immigrants were still — bafflingly — being turned away by other companies, Swank took them in. My family can attest to that.

Swank Inc. was founded in 1897, and it was still faring well when the company was bought out by Randa Accessories in May 2012. For more than a year, it was business as usual, but then, in August 2013, the proverbial rug was pulled out from under everyone’s feet.

The Warner Boulevard warehouse was being shut down.

Hundreds of people — our people — were going to be out of work. Worse, they had months to wait before the final blow came.

It came for most on Jan. 10, 2014. People who had worked together for nearly 40 years — people who had lived their lives beneath that roof — were sent home one last time. My dad, my brother and a few of the old guard were left to linger with the echoes until they closed the doors on Feb. 28.

What happened at Swank is part of a bigger problem we are facing not only here in Taunton, but everywhere.

Companies are factoring out the human element.

No one can fault a business for wanting to make a profit, but when it becomes a game to get the biggest numbers at the expense of the people who make those numbers happen in the first place, we can say that it is more than a simple fault.

It is a shame.

Local people should be able to count on local jobs.

Going forward, workers like my dad and my brother are hoping that they can.

Page 2 of 2 - Our family, and the hundreds of others affected by this, can only collect the shards of the past and do our best to piece them into something new and, we hope, better. We are all looking for the silver lining in this.

And who knows?

Maybe now my Dad really can be an explorer.

Kristina Fontes, a Taunton resident, is a Daily Gazette correspondent and blogger.